Meeting discussionsStart with a topic.

I know that the I won't call it monstrosity in enormous building. No, no matter how they're scaling it down because it's it's now been changed into the into the grade that from visually if you saw this building, it would it um from the from the um the recreation area of of Wenbrook where uh we have our uh clubhouse where we have our um our tennis courts. There would be a lot of retainment. There would be walls over I believe 18 to 20 ft. It would have to just to the I believe to the level and I could be corrected to where they're parking it and then from there it's blocking the sun and um and there's again five units, four units um and there's a there's a a large community around it that uh um unfortunately cannot benefit. Um thank you very much. Okay. Next, if you'll make sure to speak into the microphone, this doesn't cut into my time, right? So, this doesn't cut into my time, right? Okay. Thank you. Uh, good evening. My name is Philip Toledo. I am at 1627 Omar Lane. Uh if you're looking at the uh the site map, I'm at the corner on the far left. Uh so if I heard the engineer earlier correctly, um the low point where all the water drains is right next to my deck um where I see a big storm drain that I have to perennially go out and clear all the weeds from. And so I'm speaking as one of the homeowners who's directly affected uh by the decision you'll be making tonight. Um, and I don't envy you for that, but there's a few questions that I have that I uh would still look for some clarity before if I were in your position, I would be making a decision um that could be affecting um you know, my family certainly as the one of the properties that borders this development um but also um all of our current and future neighbors.

Um what was mentioned by several of um the neighbors before was uh the elevation. So, this would be uh one of the tallest structures uh just in the visual uh surrounding area. And I know that we um discussed earlier that they had proposed dropping the garage um and we could see it in some of the pictures here. Um but I had the opportunity to read through some of the documents that were uploaded to the meeting notes prior to this. And in one of them, forgive me, there was like 10. I don't remember exactly which. Um, but I believe it said that uh they would have to be held to the elevations that were submitted on June 9th. So, I guess one question for whoever to answer would be um if what they discussed tonight is accurate, um are they held to that? If it was not in the plans that were uh submitted on June 9th. So, that's one thing that I would um if I were you, I would be asking that question for some clarity. Uh the second thing is we did talk about uh the retaining walls at the front of the property. Um, I haven't and it may have been just me not picking up to it. Uh, but for where am I where my walk out my back deck, I'm at the low point and so I'm not quite sure what I would be seeing. Um, as far as the grade goes, I think it's about a 20 to 25 foot uh slope. I know because every uh spring I have to walk up with my machete and cut down uh the old neighbor's bamboo, which by the way, thank you to the city for helping to take care of that problem a few years ago.

Uh but bamboo is tricky and so uh it's a very steep slope and so what I don't understand quite yet is uh are they leveling in the middle of the property and letting the rest of it grade down or is the whole property going to be leveled to the back um you know to where the tennis court in my property will be and am I going to be looking at you know a five foot retention wall, a two-ft retention wall or a 15oot retention wall. Uh that's one question also that um I would ask. Um, and then finally, just for the record, I don't know if this is the appropriate place to bring it up, uh, but in the renderings of the crosswalk, uh, I think that's a good spot for a crosswalk, but if we're going to add one there, we should probably also add one, uh, that crosses Argo Road because you're not going to go anywhere um, if you're trying to get to the Silver Comet Trail through that one crosswalk. So, there should be one going this way, too. And I think that's all I have. Thanks. Thank you. Hey. Hey, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Oglesby. Is uh Mark here? Hey, can we bring Mark up? Hey, Mark. Sorry, I didn't see you over there. Um Mark Wolf for the engineering department. I have questions about the drain in my neighbor's backyard near his debt that he spoke on. Uh how does that work? How does the city protect neighbors or homeowners who have these type of drains in their yard currently with respect to new developments in the area? How do we protect the what's the current uh protocol here? What will what will be the protocol for the developer if this is approved? So they will need to comply with our ordinance which which um requires a downstream analysis of their from their site.

So they'll need to manage the storm water generated on their site and also coming onto their site. um and their engineer may may be better to speak about what the plan is for their their storm water management, but they'll be required to uh manage the outflow from that pond to 10% of the peak flow that it is currently. So, right now it's a wooded site and there's when we have a rain event, there's a peak storm event and peak flow coming off that site. um for a fivey year, 10 year, 100year storm, their requirement is to reduce that peak flow by 10%. So, however they size their pond, however that pond is constructed, um with with infiltration, the volume um to to retain a certain amount of water and release it at a certain rate to meet that 10% reduction from the existing flow. So I'm not an engineer and I respect the fact that you're awesome engineer. So but what I thought I heard is we don't know their plan for this. Is that correct? I mean we just heard from the from the engineer that specific question about water and about runoff and about how they're going to deal with it and he about the drain in his backyard. I don't know about the drain, but I would think that everything they're doing to mitigate would would make the flow once it makes the drain. So, it sounds like he has a he has an inlet in his backyard. Is that is that is that correct? Yeah. So, so he's got like a pedestal inlet drain that drains into the stormwater system in his backyard is what it sounds like. Um I don't know. I don't know where his lot is in comparison to where their pond is, but I don't there may or may not be any water coming from the pond to his his inlets.

Do we detention ponds? They have to physically pipe from the detention pond into the storm water system. Is that correct? So, they're they will be required to do a downstream analysis which will determine um I mean again their engineer may be better to speak to this because I'm not sure what their plan is but the the um the outlet from their pond can be discharged on their site and then flow over the ground to the neighboring property or there can be connection from a direct connection from their pond outlet to another pipe. So it doesn't it doesn't go over the ground at all. You want to come and answer that question while we let's get some clarity while we're talking about it. You're getting more steps in than you thought you're going to get tonight, aren't you? Talk talk about talk about what he's just discussed as far as treatment of that water. So regarding the treatment water, again going back to what I stated first, everything has to be treated on site. Now how we release the water if we release any water is going to be determined by the borings that we get from the geotech report and then also when we get back our additional survey regarding the utilities on the storm drain piping uh water lines and everything like that uh that we can make a better clarification on that but the goal is ultimately to make sure that we don't downpour and add more additional because that's the heaviest concern that we have with the meeting. So the answer is you work with staff. Yes. You work with our professional staff to make sure that whatever you're releasing is within the limits to make sure that this gentleman's drain is not overwhelmed and goes into his correct. Okay. Does that satisfy you that a lot of this is done you with our with our professional engineering staff as they're doing?

Yes. I just wanted to be sure we have we there there will be a plan in place. Uh obviously I'm very familiar with his backyard and if I mean it can be a it can be really bad there if uh he's if it's overflow water especially storm water and also the tennis courts which is his next door neighbor too. He that was mentioned earlier. How will that be protect? You talked about a natural barrier which I do like right but that takes time right trees don't grow overnight. Correct. Uh depending if you buy already medium to adult trees. But to answer that question, uh currently west right now how everything already slopes there. So I'm assuming that he's already catching everything from the road without it being developed. So that's his current problem right now. When we come in develop, he's going to have significant difference of what's going back there from through our site period. So his concern right now is what he's seeing because there's no development. Right. So if he's catching everything from that road, everything's going to flow right into his property and unless someone comes and develop there, then he's going to have that continuous problem unless the city or something is interpreted on the curb and gutter or another storm drain system interpreted by the city. Mr. Welch, you have a a hydraology report. looked at it a few minutes ago, but uh is the water from the overflow structure piped or is it across ground? Is it from our proposed system? Yes. Uh that'll be determined once we get more information from the survey on the actual utility locates out there and then borings because we need that additional information to do that. And again, currently like typically when we come to these planning commissions or everything like that, we invest enough knowledge and we work with the city through the development getting some of the off-site contours and information.

But depending on how much you invest, you don't also want to shoot yourself in the foot because it's a lot of money to Can I can I just interject real quick? If it became a problem, Rusty Joey, if it became a problem that the borings or whatever it was prevented them from accomplishing what they're trying to do from a water retention and water treatment, then you would bring that back to us or we would re that would that's not that's going to be dealt with. It's not it's not going to just right there. There is not going to be a a development permit issued for this site until everything is resolved, right? So, we're not just going to say, "Oh, we think it's going to happen this way." So, I just want somebody I just wanted somebody to say he's got to go get the information to understand how much water he's really dealing with from offsite. Like, he he knows what the site is probably developing, but we don't know because the surveys aren't completely done what external water he's having to deal with and manage at that point too, right? So once we get all that information, they run this run the studies and the hydraology there is at that at that point back towards the the the um the tennis courts there is an inlet that catches the storm water from that section. There's an established easement. I think what he's trying to articulate is once they f figure out the volume that they're going to retain and what is actually leaving the site and the rate that it's leaving if the pipe that's they need to convey that water out of there is going to be sized appropriately to go into that pipe or if they actually need to make further improvements down the line to upgrade the size of that pipe to accommodate that stuff.

But all that stuff is figured out during the plan review process and we will we'll ensure that that happens. We don't issue the permit unless all that's resolved and done in accordance to Georgia blue book standard to protect these. Yes. And Mark and Claire are looking at that. We're all we're all looking at that to make sure that we're not creating adverse effects for adjoining properties. Thank you. All right. Part two of your question. Sorry. You might be the one to answer this and maybe not. I don't the engineer may be the one. Uh part two of the question is I understand there is an inlet structure at some point downstream that this water will flow to from the overflow structure in the pond. You've got to me about this before. Do you know approximately how far that is? [laughter] Okay. No, I don't. No, I don't. I mean uh I mean it's it are you talking about from the inlet point to where it comes into the road from the discharge to the inlet up here it's looking what is that 230 at the end from the end of that pond to the or from the property width. So you're I mean you're it's at at the halfway point. So you're looking at 115 feet 130 feet more or less. Okay, thank you. Well, is there anybody left to speak? Is there has everybody spoken that sworn in was here to speak? Okay, that was it. Okay, Miss Wilkinson. Yes. Um, and it's in about the proposed dog park. Are there requirements that they have like a way station on the property on the dog park? No. Typically, we let the community manage that and if it becomes a code issue and they're not managing it, then code enforcement will step in and address it with their HOA.

And that's my understanding that's the part of the property from what I was hearing. Yeah. Thank you. And and just not to beat a dead horse or anything, but with respect to Oh, it's been beaten with the with the with the with the with the with the with the with the with the with the with the respect to the storm water management, this is has a GC zoning C uh zoning designation. If they came in with an entitled project that didn't require reszoning, they would still have to go through all this storm water review and have to do the same thing as well. So, um, this that's going to be whether this is a town home development or if it's commercial development or whatever it it it's an issue that the city is going to address during the development process for this. Any other questions, comments, or anything for the applicant? Okay. Uh, we'll close the public hearing now, and this is in Ward 7. I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Oglesby for a motion. Yes, Mr. Mayor. Thank you. Uh I'm going to recommend uh that this is approved based off the updates that were given at the last zoning meeting. Uh so I do recommend approval here. Like a second, please. Okay, we have a motion to approve by Mr. Oglesby and a second by Mr. Gold. Everyone, please vote. And that's approved. 70. Thank you and I appreciate everybody coming out tonight. Um I want to thank the residents for the for speaking and also to the developer for the applicant for working with the community. I know you had two community meetings made a lot of changes. Um and so hopefully this will be a successful project. Yeah. All right. We'll move on now. We don't have any privilege, license or show cause hearings. We'll move on to formal business. We have six items on formal business. Uh the first

is item A. This is our third public hearing where we will um vote on the

adoption of the 2026 mill rate. Um so I'll ask Mr. Jones to give any background. This is the third of of our last public hearing. We've had two other ones. Uh one this morning and one a few days ago. Um the the highlight being that we are keeping the millage rate the same uh as we've had for the last 18 years since 2008. And um so if you are a homesteaded property in the city of Smyrna, you are not getting a city tax increase. I just want to make that clear. There's a lot of um a lot of chatter out there uh that that we're raising taxes on Smyrna homeowners, but but that's not the case. Uh Mr. Jones, any other background? Uh, [clears throat] yes sir, mayor. So, the FY27 budget was approved by the council and included revenue projection for property taxes based on the existing 8.99 mills and that millage rate has been was set in 2008 and has continued unchanged for the last 18 years. Remarkably, this is the last of three required public hearings before the formal adoption uh of this 8.99 military. So, the tax digest information received back from Cobb County on June 18th. And um the official notices were posted in the Marietta Daily Journal on July 4th, 5th, 11th, and 12th, and a press release was sent to Marietta Daily Journal on June 30th. has also been posted on our city website and additional hearings were held on July 13th at 6 pm and again this morning at 8:30. Um so this being the third of three required public hearings. Uh staff recommends adoption of the military as it stayed maintained for yet another year at 8.99. Thank you, Mr. Jones. Uh this is a public hearing. I'd invite anybody who wants to speak uh on this either for or against to come on up and be sworn in. Anybody? All right, we will close the public hearing and I will entertain a motion to adopt the 2026 military. So moved by Mr. Lley, second by Mr. Welch. Everyone please vote.

That's approved. 70. Item B is resolution to adopt the Cobb County local hazard mitigation plan update and authorize the mayor to sign and execute